Chinese Literature

to be cut into pieces. They were taken to the public square for execution as a public example, they had no way to protest.

When dumb men eat wormwood, how great their distress! Their dread of its sharpness they cannot express.

Now, worthy readers, if the concubine and Tsui Ning had really committed robbery and murder, would they not have fled the same night? Why should she allow herself to be caught by spending one night with a neighbour and setting off to see her parents the next day? Anyone who thought twice could see that injustice had been done; but the magistrate was a fool who, in his impatience to close the case, did not stop to think that anybody will confess under torture. And when a man commits injustice, either he or his descendants will suffer; for the wronged ghosts will not rest till they are avenged. Thus a judge must not condemn people as the whim takes him, nor torture prisoners as he pleases: justice and wisdom are required. For the dead can never come to life again, and the broken can never again be made whole.

Mrs. Liu stayed on in her husband’s house, where she had set up a shrine for him before which she mourned every day; and when her father advised her to return home, she said: “Even if I don’t mourn for the required three years, I ought at least to mourn for one.”

Her father agreed and let her be. But time passed quickly, and when she had eked out a miserable existence alone for nearly a year, Mr. Wang saw that she could not carry on much longer and sent Old Wang to fetch her, saying: ‘Ask the mistress to pack up and come home. As soon as she has observed the anniversary of her husband’s death she may marry again.”

Since Mrs. Liu was in difficulties, after careful thought she agreed with her father. Accordingly she made a bundle of her belongings which she gave to Old Wang to carry, and having said goodbye to her neighbours left the city. It was autumn and, caught in a sudden squall on their way home, they had to leave the road to find shelter in the forest. They took the wrong path, however.

Like pigs or sheep that near the butcher's knife, Each step they took was shortening their life.

For as Mrs. Liu and her servant were walking through the forest, someone shouted from behind them: “I am the king of the mountain! Stop and pay toll!” :

As the travellers stood there trembling, a man leapt out, wearing a red cap and a tattered old battle dress with a red silk sash and a pair of dark boots. He had a sword in his hand which he brandished as he advanced. Old Wang was fated to die, for he said: “Bandit! Skunk!

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